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The Comparative Health Outcomes, Policy, and Economics (CHOICE) Institute

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CHOICE Team Publishes Guide for Medicare and Medicaid Drug Price Negotiations

the CHOICE Institute, University of Washington, have published an economic-principles-based guide on factors the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) may consider when drafting their strategy to implement drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The authors recommend that CMS should always use a value-based strat...
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UW Professor Anirban Basu Addresses ‘Algorithmic Discrimination’ With New Study

Professor Anirban Basu, the Stergachis Family Endowed Director of the CHOICE Institute, has published a paper in Science Advances on a controversial topic regarding whether variables such as race and ethnicity belong in clinical prediction algorithms.

Basu said the impetus for the paper was motivated by concerns raised by several federal and st...
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Professor Andy Stergachis co-leads workshop on substandard and falsified antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance

Professor Andy Stergachis co-leads workshop on substandard and falsified antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance

tute Professor Andy Stergachis co-led an invitational workshop at the University of Oxford to discuss research on the relationship between substandard and falsified antimicrobials and antimicrobial resistance. Held on March 20-22, 2023, it was organized by the University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics Sciences and Global Medicines Progr...
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CHOICE Team Co-Authors Study Supporting Routine Genomic Testing for Young Adults

veness, Policy & Economics (CHOICE) Institute in the Department of Pharmacy recently published a simulation modeling study in Annals of Internal Medicine that urges U.S. health policymakers to consider routine genomic testing of all adults aged 40 and younger for three genetic conditions posing high risk of devastating illness.

According to ...
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Garrison Speaks at HTA Conferences in Egypt and India

Professor Emeritus Lou Garrison speaking at the 2023 ISHTA

cently at health technology assessment (HTA) meetings held in Cairo and New Delhi with similar themes in both regions. HTA is well appreciated in both regions and steps are being taken to build institutions and capacity to carry out HTA.

Lou was a keynote speaker in the 1st Annual Arab Health Economics Meeting: Evolution of Health Economics in A...
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Welcoming our 2023-2025 Cohort of MS HEOR Fellows

nce the 2023-25 cohort of CHOICE MS HEOR Fellows who will start their programs on July 1, 2023. Our HEOR MS fellows work closely with faculty in the CHOICE Institute on projects where they learn first-hand how to apply the principles of outcomes research to real-life problems. These fellowships provide students with a year of study at the Universit...
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Sullivan Named 2022 AAAS Fellow

Sean Sullivan

stitute Professor Sean D. Sullivan is among four University of Washington researchers who have been named AAAS Fellows, according to a Jan. 31 announcement by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They are among 506 new fellows from around the world elected in 2022, who are recognized for their “scientifically and socially dist...
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Fulbright US Senior Scholar Prof. Beth Devine returns to School of Pharmacy and The CHOICE Institute after a 9-month sabbatical in Spain

Beth Devine

WSOP Professor and Associate Director Beth Devine enjoyed a sabbatical as a Fulbright US Senior Scholar and a Visiting Professor at the Institute for Methodology in Health Sciences, Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Murcia (UMU), in Murcia, España. With 38,000 students and established in 1272, U...
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Lou Garrison Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

Lou Garrison

or Emeritus for The CHOICE Institute, who has been awarded the 2022 Avedis Donabedian Lifetime Achievement Award by ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research recognizing his outstanding, life-long contribution to the improvement of health outcomes. bit.ly/3qMXZKt...
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The CHOICE Institute Annual Symposium: Health Equity in HEOR

CHOICE

rtually on ZOOM Webinar | Hosted in-person at the Health Sciences Education Building, Room 101

Please join us for the 2022 CHOICE Institute Annual Symposium. Health Equity is a multidimensional construct. We are pleased to host three outstanding faculty to discuss some of the relevant dimensions of health equity and their implications for our w...
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Enrique Saldarriaga wins 2022 UW Three Minute Thesis Competition

Enrique Saldarriaga

n the School of Pharmacy and The CHOICE Institute, has won first place in the 2022 UW Three Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition. His dissertation, The Value of Using Local Data to Allocate Resources to Fight the HIV Epidemic: Case of Study in Atlanta, Georgia, combines statistical methods and mathematical modeling of infectious diseases to quantify the...
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CHOICE PhD Student Awarded Magnuson Scholarship for 2022–2023

Yilin Chen

nounce that Yilin Chen, a PhD candidate in The CHOICE Institute, has been selected as one of the Magnuson Scholars for the 2022–2023 academic year.

While pursuing her PhD, Yilin has had many worthwhile research experiences through class projects, independent study with faculty, and research assistant positions with many focusing on diabetes. ...
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David Veenstra and Colleagues Awarded $4.5M Grant From the National Human Genome Research Institute

David Veenstra

avid Veenstra, along with Vanderbilt University Professor Josh Peterson, and Geisinger Health Assistant Professor Jing Hao, have been awarded a 5-year, $4.5M grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) to evaluate the clinical and economic outcomes of screening for cancer and cardiovascular disease risk using Polygenic Risk Scor...
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The CHOICE Institute and Department of Pharmacy Welcome Decision Scientist Kyu Eun Lee

Kyu Eun Lee

CHOICE Institute and the Department of Pharmacy in January as The CHOICE Institute Endowed Assistant Professor of Health Decision Sciences. Dr. Lee obtained a PhD in Health Policy (Decision Science track) at Stanford University in 2020 and a Master of Science in Health Services Research at the University of Minnesota in 2014. Dr. Lee joins us most...
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Assessing Payers’ Preferences for Real-World Evidence in the United States

Enrique Saldarriaga

ealth (and deemed as one of the Editor’s Choice articles) has determined that US insurance payers have higher preferences for clinical and health-related quality of life outcomes when assessing evidence to inform coverage and reimbursement decisions.In a discrete choice experiment, 180 employees from payer organizations were tasked to choose betw...
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Douglas Barthold Awarded NIA Grant

Douglas Barthold

HOICE Faculty Fellow Douglas Barthold has been awarded a K01 grant from the National Institute of Aging (NIA) for his project titled, Long-term effects of today's medical care access policies on the future burden of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

NIH Mentored Research Scientist Development Awards provide support for an intensive, men...
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The CHOICE Institute and Department of Pharmacy Welcome Health Economist Jing Li

Jing Li

CHOICE Institute and the Department of Pharmacy in August as an Assistant Professor of Health Economics. Dr. Li earned her PhD in Health Policy (Economics Track) from the University of California, Berkeley in 2016. She also holds a BA in Economics & English from Peking University, an MA in International Comparative Education from Stanford Un...
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Three CHOICE faculty receive international ISPOR awards

lth economics and outcomes research (HEOR)— recently announced its annual round of award winners, and three faculty members from The CHOICE Institute – Anirban Basu, Beth Devine and Aasthaa Bansal – have been named recipients for 2021.

Basu, Stergachis Family Endowed Director of The CHOICE Institute, was recognized for his paper, “Healt...
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The CHOICE Institute 2020-2021 Annual Report Now Available!

1 CHOICE Institute Annual Report.

This past academic year was extraordinarily challenging, yet we are so proud of the many achievements and perseverance of our students, faculty, staff, and alumni. To request a hard copy, please contact Marina Gano at mcgano@uw.edu.

Access the full report here. ...
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Welcoming our 2021-2023 Cohort of MS HEOR Fellows

cohort of CHOICE MS HEOR Fellows.

The CHOICE Institute has partnerships with four pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that sponsor two-year fellowship programs for recent PharmD graduates. The trainee spends a year with us at UW earning an MS degree, and then one year gaining on the ground experience with their sponsor company.

Postdoc...
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2021 Winners of the Elmer M. Plein Endowed Research Fund Announced

Qingcheng Mao, 2021 recipients of the Elmer M. Plein Endowed Research Fund, an award established to encourage, promote and support research and innovative practice in pharmacy.

Rachel, a CHOICE Program PhD student originally from Palo Alto, California, says the fund will help her to continue pursuing her research on Washington State’s “phar...
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Jennifer Bacci Selected as 2021 Recipient of the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award

Jenny Bacci

stitute has named UWSOP’s Jennifer Bacci the 2021 recipient of the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award. Dr. Bacci is recognized for her outstanding leadership example in the Academia-CPESN Transformation (ACT) Pharmacy Collaborative Task Force by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), as a Flip the Pharmacy coach, and a...
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Welcome (back) Dr. Elizabeth Brouwer to the CHOICE Institute!

h (Lizzy) Brouwer, PhD, will be re-joining the CHOICE Institute as a research scientist. Lizzy will be working on our ICER project team as a lead modeler.  In this role, she will develop cost-effectiveness models and participate in the development of ICER project reports.  Her first project, topic TBD, is scheduled for the July 2021 public meetin...
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The CHOICE Institute Graduate Fellowship Support

f our leading innovations and most impactful work — from developing models for value assessment in pharmaceuticals, to evaluating government policies and programs like the Generic Drug User Fee Act (GDUFA) to literally writing the textbook on drug-drug interactions. They are the inspired researchers who propel the University of Washington School ...
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CHOICE Institute Releases 2020 Annual Report

CHOICE Annual Report 2020

ve Health Outcomes, Policy & Economics (CHOICE) Institute is now available. Learn more about CHOICE’s extraordinary team and impactful work: https://lnkd.in/g6BFFYw...
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New research finds association between COVID-19 hospital use and mortality

patient in hospital bed

ta and University of Washington found a statistical relationship between the number of hospital beds (ICU and non-ICU) occupied by COVID-19 patients in a state and reported mortality. Published today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, this research is believed to be the first to use actual, state-level data to examine this association.

...
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Estimating the Infection Fatality Rate among Symptomatic Covid-19 Cases in the U.S.

Anirban Basu

rban Basu, Stergachis Family Endowed Director of The CHOICE Institute at the UW School of Pharmacy, has developed one of the first models that can estimate the COVID-19 Infection Fatality Rate among symptomatic cases (IFR-S).

The Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) is a critical parameter in understanding the COVID-19 pandemic. Basu, who authored the ...
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UWSOP alum appointed Senior VP for Health Economics at ICER

Jon Campbell

CE alum Jonathan D. Campbell, PhD, will become Senior Vice President for Health Economics at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). Having collaborated with ICER closely over the past five years, Campbell will oversee the growth of ICER's health economics team and lead in the future innovation of ICER's value assessment methodology....
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Welcome to our new class of CHOICE MS Fellows

22 cohort of CHOICE MS Fellows.

The CHOICE Institute has partnerships with four pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that sponsor two-year fellowship programs for recent PharmD graduates. The trainee spends a year with us at UW earning an MS degree, and then one year gaining on the ground experience with their sponsor company.

Postdocto...
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UWSOP CHOICE create Novel New Framework for Valuing Health Outcomes in Cost-Effectiveness Analyses

Choice faculty and students

:” A Novel Framework for Valuing Health Outcomes in Cost-Effectiveness Analyses. CHOICE Researchers Introduce a New metric that provides a robust and feasible approach that overcomes specific limitations of the QALY

Lawrenceville, NJ, USA—January 20, 2020—Value in Health, the official journal of ISPOR—the professional society for health ...
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CHOICE Institute Researchers Find that Rural Hospital Closures Increase Patient Mortality

Kritee Gujral

1990, and rates of hospital closure—particularly in rural areas—have increased over the last decade.

Dr. Kritee Gujral and Dr. Anirban Basu’s recent National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper, “The Impact of Rural and Urban Hospital Closures on Inpatient Mortality,” which used California’s inpatient data from 1995-201...
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The CHOICE Institute is pleased to welcome Dr. Jens Grueger, PhD, to the School of Pharmacy as an Affiliate Professor

ident Elect for the Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) and current Director and Partner at Boston Consulting Group in Zurich, Switzerland where he is the senior expert for pricing and market access in the life sciences. Previously, Dr Grueger was Head of Global Access at F. Hoffmann-La Roche, based in Basel, Swi...
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Recap from SMDM 2019

(SMDM) brings together researchers, clinicians, educators, managers, and policy makers from diverse backgrounds and disciplines. SMDM is the leading society for studying and advancing decision sciences in health, including incorporation of patients’ values and preferences. It promotes scientific and methodological rigor in health care decision re...
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CHOICE Alum Will Canestaro recognized for health innovation

as a 2019 Seattle Health Innovator of the Year in Collaboration.

This award recognizes individuals who are exhibiting extraordinary talent in the four attributes that contribute to successful innovation: collaboration, customer focus, imagination, and perseverance. Recognized for collaboration, Will is currently the Managing Director at Washingt...
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Doug Barthold Explores Diagnostic Patterns of Dementia

Doug Barthold

expanded his research program that studies risk factors and care for Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD). In a recent publication, he and his co-authors examined diagnosis patterns to understand how different types of dementia are diagnosed, and the degree to which specialist physicians offer more precise diagnoses than non-specialists...
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CHOICE Team presents at the ICER CEPAC Meeting on Type 2 Diabetes

Ryan Hansen

n Hansen and Greg Guzauskas, were recently presenters at the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review's (ICER) New England CEPAC Meeting on Type 2 Diabetes at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

The UW Team created a cost-effectiveness microsimulation model to evaluate the value of oral semaglutide added to ongoing background diabete...
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Teams at UWSOP and Fred Hutch look at emerging sickle cell disease therapies

erging sickle cell disease therapies

The National Institutes of Health’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) funded a unique collaborative, The Sickle Cell Clinical and Economic Impact Consortium that brings together The CHOICE Institute at the UW School of Pharmacy (UWSOP), Fred Hutch, NHLBI, and The Emmes Corporation. The Colla...
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Find the CHOICE Institute at SMDM 2019

f the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) is just down the road in Portland this year (Oct 20-23) and we hope to connect with you there. To find the posters and presentations of CHOICE students, staff, alumni, and faculty, please refer to the PDF attached here. See you in Portland!

>> 2019 SMDM OVERVIEW

Don't forget to follow our...
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Marcum first pharmacist to receive prestigious Beeson Award

awarded the Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award (K76) from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and The John A. Hartford Foundation.

Notably, Zach is the first pharmacist to receive the grant, which is typically awarded to physician-investigators. This initiative is focused on clinically trained, early-stage investigators ...
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Promoted UWSOP faculty tackling tough problems facing population health with novel approaches

ws ways to solve significant population health problems from Alzheimer’s and related dementias to kidney disease to cancer to MRSA. These preeminent researchers were all recently awarded promotions. Learn more about their research and read stories about their innovative research below.
Abhinav Nath, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Medici...
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Using Data and Economics to Transform Health | Celebrating 25 Years

CHOICE faculty and students at the 2019 retreat

te continues to grow and transform, expanding its impact on population health.
“At CHOICE, we work to advance the study of health economics, pharmaceutical outcomes research, and policy to improve population health in the U.S. and around the world.”—Anirban Basu, Stergachis Endowed Director, Choice Institute
The Comparative Health Outcomes,...
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A Tradition of Reinventing Pharmacy

faculty and alumni have had on health care nationwide through decades of advocacy for increased access to patient care.
“Pharmacists are the medication experts on the health care team and in the community. Thanks to our work, in addition to improved care at hospitals and clinics, busy people can just pop into their local pharmacy to get the car...
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Using Genetics to Decode Warfarin

Genome Sequencers

icine launched here at UW School of Pharmacy about twenty years ago, when Dave Veenstra’s graduate student Mitch Higashi,‘01, assembled a 200-member cohort of warfarin patients to study genetic factors influencing their drug response. They partnered with Allan Rettie in Medicinal Chemistry to go deeper.

Warfarin (CoumadinTM) has been a vital...
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Enhancing the way epilepsy is managed by engaging community pharmacists

of Pharmacy today announced a collaboration with global biopharmaceutical company UCB to improve access to care for people living with epilepsy.This interdisciplinary project will explore ways in which community pharmacists can better support people living with this neurological disorder.

The roughly 3.4 million people nationally and 75,000 peop...
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Supporting cancer survivors

Assitant Professor Aasthaa Bansal’s team will look at care for colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and chronic myeloid leukemia. Their approach will extend to other diseases, including pediatric cancers.

winning team to develop decision-making frameworks to guide post-treatment care for cancer survivorsDespite receiving effective primary treatment, many cancer survivors remain at risk of relapse and associated morbidity and mortality. Surveillance testing using biomarkers and imaging may detect disease recurrence before clinical symptoms manifest a...
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Where to find CHOICE Students, Alumni, & Faculty at ISPOR 2019

CHOICE students, alumni, and faculty, please refer to the PDF attached here.

CHOICE at ISPOR 2019

 ...
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Dean Sullivan named OSU Icon of Pharmacy

gon State University College of Pharmacy alumni and friends gathered at Portland City Grill to honor the recipients of the 2019 Icons of Pharmacy Award including Sean D. Sullivan, a truly dedicated leader in the pharmacy profession.

Sean was recognized for his leadership at the UW School of Pharmacy where his engagement has helped transform ...
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Brouwer and Ko each win Garrison Prize in 2019

Lou Garrison presents the Garrison Prize to Lizzy Brouwer at the 2019 CHOICE retreat.

he Louis Sr. and Marilyn Garrison Endowed Prize in Health Policy and Economics, Elizabeth Brouwer (4th year CHOICE PhD student) and Gilbert Ko (3rd year PharmD/MBA student)!

CHOICE Professor Emeritus, Dr. Lou Garrison, is seen here presenting Lizzy with the award, named in honor of his parents, at the CHOICE Annual Retreat.

This year’s priz...
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CHOICE students travel abroad to research cervical cancer and test a TBI screening app

ly awarded global health travel fellowships. Erik Landaas received the Global Opportunities (GO) Health fellowship for his work in Thailand. Enrique Saldarriaga received the Stergachis Endowed Fellowship for International Exchange for his work in Kenya with Dr. Ruanne Barnabas, Associate Professor in Global Health and Medicine at the University of...
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Welcome new Research Project Manager Anthony Morgan to CHOICE

CHOICE Research Project Manager, Anthony Morgan

an (who goes by Morgan) to The CHOICE Institute! Morgan is serving as CHOICE's first Research Project Manager. Prior to joining us here at UWSOP, he was at Seattle Children’s Hospital.

Morgan will be supporting CHOICE Director Anirban Basu and other CHOICE investigators, including Aasthaa Bansal. In general, he will lead administrative sup...
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Brouwer receives UW Population Health Initiative Travel Award

CHOICE PhD Student Elizabeth Brouwer

izabeth Brouwer who received conference travel funds from the Population Health Initiative at the University of Washington! Elizabeth will use the funds to attend the American Society of Health Economists conference (ASHEcon) in June 2019.

Elizabeth will be speaking on a panel titled, “Impacts of Federal, State, and Commercial Prescription Dru...
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Lauren Strand named 2019-2020 UWSOP Magnuson Scholar

Magnuson Scholar Lauren Strand with CHOICE faculty (right to left) Ryan Hansen, Josh Carlson, and Beth Devine

nt in the CHOICE Institute, Lauren Strand who was named the UWSOP Magnuson Scholar for 2019-2020. Magnuson Scholars are selected for their excellent academic performance and outstanding potential for research in the health sciences; they receive $30,000 to support their research, education, and training. 

Originally interested in studying pr...
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UWSOP team wins the AMCP 2019 National Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Competition

Michael Sporck, ‘20, Eunice Kim, ‘20, Hanna Kleiboeker, ‘20 and Erin Ichinotsubo, ‘21 won first place at the National AMCP P&T competition

Michael Sporck, ‘20, Eunice Kim, ‘20, Hanna Kleiboeker, ‘20 and Erin Ichinotsubo, ‘21, who won first place at the highly competitive Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Foundation 19th Annual National Student Pharmacist Pharmacy & Therapeutics (P&T) Competition. The team's advisors were UWSOP faculty David Veenstra and Pete Fu...
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Bacci, White, and Zaraa awarded UW Population Health grant to study integrated care models for people living with epilepsy

tant Professor, Department of Pharmacy; H. Steve White, Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacy; and Sabra Zarâa, CHOICE PhD student, Pharmacy on receiving one of the 2019 pilot research grants awarded by the UW Population Health Initiative. The interdisciplinary team's project is titled, "Community pharmacist integrated population health ma...
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HECOR certificate expands program into Saudi Arabia

tificate in Health Economics and Outcomes Research program has been reaching a wide audience.

In addition to offering the traditional distance learning program to US and international students, engaging 40 students from 4 countries this year, CHOICE is running a separate program sponsored by AbbVie for 24 Ministry of Health officials from Saudi...
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Doug Barthold was awarded the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Pilot Award

awarded the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Pilot Award, for a proposal titled “Alzheimer’s disease related neuropathology among patients with medication treated type 2 diabetes in a community-based autopsy cohort.”

The award is for one year. His study will look at the relationship between use of type II diabetes medications and Alzh...
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Chuck Phelps delivers keynote at 2nd Annual CHOICE Symposium

Emeritus Charles E. Phelps, PhD, for the 2019 CHOICE Institute Annual Symposium. Dr. Phelps provided an overview of multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods.
"The CHOICE Institute was delighted to host Professor Emeritus Charles Phelps at the keynote speaker for the CHOICE Annual Symposium. Professor Phelps discussed alternative methods ...
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Stergachis helps veterans by serving on a National Academies of Sciences committee

Andy Stergachis, UWSOP Professor & Associate Dean

nted to a committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to conduct a study sponsored by the Veterans Administration, to assess the long-term health effects of antimalarial drugs used by adults, in particular mefloquine, for the prophylaxis of malaria.

The National Academies was charged with studying the long-term hea...
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Landaas presents PupilScreen app at Dawg Days in the Desert

he leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. CHOICE PhD student Erik Landaas has partnered with PhD students at UW School of Nursing, Kwankaew Wongchareon and Ana Carolina Sauer Liberato, along with students at UW Computer Science, UW Engineering, and UW Neurosurgery to create a new mobile health phone app called PupilScreen.

PupilSc...
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CHOICE Alumnae Bennette and Adamson to lead ISPOR short course

Blythe Adamson

d Blythe Adamson, recent CHOICE alum, will be presenting/co-leading one of the short courses, Tools for Reproducible Real-World Data Analysis. This course will focus on the concepts and tools of reproducible research and reporting of modern data analyses. The need for more reproducible tools in health economics and outcomes research is growing rapi...
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12 UWSOP students to present posters at ISPOR

ents, comprised of eleven CHOICE Students and fellows and one PharmD student (co-authored with a CHOICE student), who were selected to present posters the annual ISPOR conference in May. Several students had multiple abstracts accepted, making a total of 15 research posters from UWSOP to be represented by CHOICE at the conference.

Jaime Ta
Alle...
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Marina Gano joins Department of Pharmacy and The CHOICE Institute

Marina Gano

artment of Pharmacy/CHOICE Institute Graduate Program and Operations Manager.

Marina grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, after first living in Germany and Maryland. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages and Literature (Spanish and German) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF).

Her career in higher education began in the Office ...
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Devine and Chen debut Real-world Evidence Assessments and Needs Guidance (READi) Tool

CHOICE READi tool

d CHOICE PhD student Shuxian Chen led an invited workshop last month at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) Nexus Meeting in Orlando Florida.

There, they presented their newly developed framework and tool that guides users in evaluating real world evidence (RWE) to inform health technology adoption decisions – the CHOICE “Real-worl...
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CHOICE director Anirban Basu and collaborators receive NIH grant to study costs of dementia care

PORPP Dir & Prof Anirban Basu

the future burden of the disease.Anirban Basu, director of the CHOICE Institute at UWSOP, and professor in the schools of Pharmacy and Public Health at the University of Washington, received more than $230,000 from the National Institutes of Health to measure the current and future costs of care for people with dementia. The research is part of a ...
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CHOICE PhD student Landaas studies PupilScreen app in Thailand

Erik Landaas, current CHOICE PhD student pictured with CHOICE alumnus, Nathorn Chaiyakunapruk, PhD, in Thailand

d funding to conduct a mobile health validation study in Thailand. The study is funded by Washington Research Foundation (WRF) and his primary co-investigators include two UW School of Nursing PhD candidates.

PupilScreen a newly developed smartphone app that screens for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and concussions was developed in collaboratio...
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Kai Yeung receives grant for project looking at value in prescription drug benefit design

Kai Young, PhD, '15

nus and Affiliate Assistant Professor, Kai Yeung, PharmD PhD, `15, who received a research grant from the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation's Greater Value Portfolio program.

Kai's project is entitled, "Value-based Formulary-Essentials: Testing and Expanding on Value in Prescription Drug Benefit Design."

 ...
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Anirban Basu awarded Mid-Career Excellence Award by HPSS

PORPP Dir & Prof Anirban Basu

ence on Health Policy Statistics (ICHPS) held in Charleston, South Carolina, Anirban Basu was awarded the Mid-Career Excellence Award from the American Statistical Association Section on Health Policy Statistics (HPSS). Anirban was exceptionally and uniquely qualified for this award. Highlights include his providing outstanding service to the HPSS,...
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Barthold uses economics methods to improve dementia diagnosis and treatment plans across race, ethnicity, and sex

“Economists have a knack for identification strategies—using data in innovative ways to isolate the role of one specific drug and separate it from other confounders that may affect the outcome of interest,” said Doug (pictured right, with CHOICE  PhD graduate student Erik Landaas). 

itute at UWSOP, Doug Barthold is taking a couple of approaches that use data and economic modeling to find potential treatments and trends in care of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
At press time, there are no known drugs that can prevent or delay the onset or progression of Alzheimer’s, so some researchers, incl...
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Marcum takes a multi-prong approach toward developing a dementia prevention strategy

Zach Marcum, Plein Center Assistant Director of Research and Bailey Faculty Fellow and Assistant Professor of Pharmacy

errifying for most people, particularly for those with family members who have had the disease. Many wonder what they can do to prevent the onset of dementia—which is where the research of the Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy has some answers.
Experts know there are healthy habits that will make a difference—exercising regularly, managing h...
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UW Researchers Gray and Phelan to study the impact of deprescribing to reduce falls in older adults

Older adult hands holding medication

edicine’s Elizabeth Phelan are teaming up to identify ways to prevent falls in older adults. Their study, “Reducing Central Nervous System (CNS)-active Medications to Prevent Falls and Injuries in Older Adults (STOP-FALLS),” will identify medication safety improvements to reduce fall-related injuries and other adverse health outcomes.
“Fal...
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Researchers at UW and USC find a type of medication used to treat high blood pressure may reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease

ity of Washington and Julie Zissimopoulos of the University of Southern California published the first study to compare multiple types of blood pressure medications and the beneficial effect they may have on different populations. Unlike other studies, they looked at how Alzheimer’s disease risk was reduced across race, ethnicity, and sex.

The...
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Lou Garrison named 2018 Value Assessment Challenge Award recipient

d Medicine Coalition (PMC) announced that Lou Garrison is one of the first place recipients of the 2018 Value Assessment Challenge Awards. These awards are designed to encourage innovative approaches in defining and measuring value in health care. Lou and the other award recipients were recognized for submitting research proposals that focus specif...
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CHOICE faculty member, Aasthaa Bansal, awarded highly coveted NIH Merit Award

Aasthaa Bansal and Erik Landaas writing on whiteboard at the School of Pharmacy

e CHOICE Institute was recently awarded a $2.5M+, seven-year Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) (R37) award from the National Cancer Institute to develop a dynamic decision-making framework for identifying personalized risk-adaptive surveillance strategies for cancer survivors. This research seeks to shift the paradigm of how routinely colle...
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Researchers at UW bolster study of how austerity devastated Greece’s health

Andy Stergachis, UWSOP Professor & Associate Dean

m the University of Washington and around the world has found that Greece’s population health declined markedly and death rates rose sharply after harsh austerity measures were imposed on Greece by the European Union and the International Money Fund in 2010.

“This study is important because it provides a framework for health surveillance on ...
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Neumann presents at joint HICOR/PHEnOM Seminar and PAA Katterman Lecture

on Institute for Cancer Outcomes Research (HICOR) Joint Seminar
On Wednesday, May 2nd, Peter Neumann, Sc.D. joined our PHEnOM seminar to discuss whether the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) is becoming the U.S.' counterpart to England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

PHEnOM facilitates discussion betw...
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Strand awarded 2018 Garrison Prize in Health Policy & Economics

Lauren Strand who received the Louis Garrison Sr. And Marilyn Garrison Endowed Prize in Health Policy and Economics prize! Lauren's paper is titled "New Statin use and left ventricular structure: Estimating long-term associations in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)."

Laurent's research looked at recent clinical guidelines that ...
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Marcum study finds metformin has mortality benefits even with low kidney function

of Pharmacy and VA Puget Sound looked at 175,000 patientsIn a recent study, researchers at the University of Washington and the VA Puget Sound Health Care System have found that an important diabetes drug can be used safely among a high-risk patient population – those with poor kidney function. They concluded metformin should be prescribed prefe...
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Basu trains Indian government and health leaders in health economics

2018 International Health Technology Assessment Fellowship Cohort

argest public health insurance initiatives in the world, it became more important than ever for government, university, and health care leaders to understand key aspects to health economics. Dr. Jitendra Sharma, Advisor on Health and Medical Technology to the Government of Andhara Pradesh invited UWSOP's CHOICE Institute Director, Anirban Basu, ...
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Our CHOICE PhD students continue to advance research to improve health outcomes

ear is off to a good start. Our PhD students have been busy since last year and we wanted to take the time to highlight a few of their key accomplishments.
Meng Li
Meng Li, a 5th year CHOICE PhD candidate, along with Kai Yeung (CHOICE Alum), and Josh Carlson (CHOICE Faculty) won Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy's (JMCP) Best Paper...
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Meet Our Newest Faculty Member, Doug Barthold

barthold

arch Assistant Professor, to the faculty of the Department of Pharmacy and to The CHOICE Institute!

Doug comes to us from the University of Southern California where he was a post-doctoral scholar with the Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics. Doug received his BBA in Management, Economics and Mathematics in 2007 from the University ...
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New fellowship will advance thoughtful health care innovation in Washington state

h Foundation and The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP creates opportunities for students and researchers at non-profit research institutions in Washington state
The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP is pleased to announce a partnership with the Washington Research Foundation (WRF) that will create four new fellowships per year designed to support non-profit rese...
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CHOICE alumnus Scott Strassels moves into leadership role at Ohio State U

Scott Strassels

harmacy congratulates Scott Strassels, PhD, PharmD, on his new position as assistant professor in the Division of Trauma, Critical Care and Burn and scientific director of the Center for Surgical Health Assessment, Research and Policy (SHARP). He previously served as a clinical pharmacist, providing recommendations for symptom management to   phy...
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Launch of The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP promises leadership in health economics and outcomes research

e, as current advances in medical technology and breakthroughs are unprecedented in human history. There is a cure for Hepatitis C that works in weeks. Polio used to afflict thousands around the world; today, there are only twelve cases in just two countries. We are within years—not decades—of personalized therapies for cancer.

Despite these...
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Veenstra weighs in on genetic testing in Science Magazine

DNA sample for gene sequencing at Debbie Nickerson Lab, University of Washington.

alls of genetic testing is discussed in, "Is health care ready for routing DNA screening? A massive new trial will find out" in Science Magazine. Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy faculty member and associate director, David Veenstra was interviewed for the story.

"In about 5 years I think we are going to have a very serious discussion...
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UWSOP faculty and alumni elected to ISPOR leadership

UWSOP faculty and alumni past, present and future leaders of ISPOR (From left to right): Past President (2003-2004) Sean D. Sullivan, President Lou Garrison, President-elect Shelby D. Reed, Immediate Past President Daniel Malone, Past President (2010-2011) Scott Ramsey

SPOR over the past 20 years
UW School of Pharmacy faculty and alumni are again recognized as leaders in health care. The International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) announced the election of the Society’s 2016-2017 Board of Directors that assumed office on July 1, 2016. Many of the new leadership team are part of th...
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Celebrating 20 Years of Excellence for the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program (PORPP)

PORPP Retreat 2015

share a common trait. They don’t position themselves where the big wave is now; they position themselves where the next big wave is going to be. PORPP teaches students to read the patterns in scientific methods, to understand the history that built up behind the last big waves, and to prepare for the ride of your life when you finally catch the b...
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